Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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METHOD FOR ALLOWING MULTI-USER ORTHOGONAL AND
NON-ORTHOGONAL INTEROPERABILITY OF CODE CHANNELS
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The last twenty years have seen unprecedented growth in both the type and
demand for wireless communication services. Wireless voice communication
services, including cellular telephone, Personal Communication Services (PCS),
and
similar systems now provide nearly ubiquitous coverage. The infrastructure for
such
networks has been build-out to the point where most residents of the United
States,
Europe, and other industrialized regions of the world have not just one, but
multiple
service providers from which to choose.
Continued growth in the electronics and computer industries increasingly
contributes to demand for access to the Internet and the myriad of services
and
features that it provides. This proliferation in the use of computing
equipment,
especially that of the portable variety, including laptop computers, handheld
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), Internet-enabled cellular telephones and
like
devices, has resulted in a corresponding increase in the need for wireless
data access.
While the cellular telephone and PCS networks are widely deployed, these
systems were not originally intended for carrying data traffic. Instead, these
networks were designed to efficiently support continuous analog signals as
compared to the burst mode digital communication protocols needed for Internet
communications. Consider also that voice communication is adequate with a
communication channel bandwidth of approximately 3 kilohertz (kHz). However,
it
is generally accepted that for effective Internet communication, such as for
Web
browsing, a data rate of at least 56 kilobits per second (kbps) or higher is
required.
In addition, the very nature of the data traffic itself is different from the
nature of voice communication. Voice requires a continuous duplex connection,
that is, the user at one end of a connection expects to be able to transmit
and receive
to the user at the other end of a connection continuously, while at the same
time the
user at the other end is also able to transmit and receive. However, access to
Web
pages over the Internet is, in general, very burst oriented. Typically, the
user of a
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remote client computer specifies the address of computer files such as on a
Web
server. This request is then formatted as a relatively short data message,
typically
less than a 1000 bytes in length. The other end of the connection, such as at
a Web
server in the network, then replies with the requested data file which may be
from 10
kilobytes to several megabytes of text, image, audio, or video data. Because
of
delays inherent in the Internet itself, users often expect delays of at least
several
seconds or more before the requested content begins to be delivered to them.
And
then once that content is delivered, the user may spend several seconds or
even
minutes reviewing, reading the contents of the page before specifying the next
page
to be downloaded.
Furthermore, voice networks were built to support high mobility usage; that
is, extreme lengths were taken to support highway speed type mobility to
maintain
connections as the users of voice based cellular and PCS networks travel at
high
speeds along a highway. However, the typical user of a laptop computer is
relatively
stationary, such as sitting at a desk. Thus, the cell-to-cell high speed
mobility
considered critical for wireless voice networks is typically not required for
supporting data access.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It would make sense to retrofit certain components of the existing wireless
infrastructure to more efficiently accommodate wireless data. The additional
functionality implemented for a new class of users who are high data rate, but
low
mobility users should be backwards compatible with existing functionality for
users
who are low data rate, high mobility. This would permit using the same
frequency
allocation plans, base station antenna, build out sites, and other aspects of
the
existing voice network infrastructure to be used to provide the new high speed
data
service.
It would be particularly important to support as high a data rate as possible
on the reverse link of such a network that is carrying data on the reverse
link, e.g.,
from the remote unit to the base station. Consider that existing digital
cellular
standards such as the IS-95 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) specify the
use
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of different code sequences in a forward link direction in order to maintain
minimum
interference between channels. Specifically, such a system employs orthogonal
codes on the forward link, which defines individual logical channels. However,
the
optimum operation of such a system requires all such codes to be time aligned
to a
specific boundary to maintain orthogonality at the receiver. Therefore, the
transmissions must be synchronized.
This is not a particular concern in a forward link direction since all
transmissions originate at the same location, i.e., at a base transceiver
station
location. However, currently, digital cellular CDMA standards do not attempt
to use
or require orthogonality between channels in reverse link direction. It is
generally
assumed that it is too difficult to synchronize transmissions originating from
remote
units located in different locations and at potentially quite different
distances from
the base station. Instead, these systems typically use a chip level scrambling
code
with unique shifts of this long pseudorandom code to distinguish the
individual
reverse link channels. Use of this scrambling however, thus precludes the
possibility
of different users' transmissions being orthogonal to one another.
The present invention is a system which supports communication among
members of a first group of users and a second group of users. The first group
of
users, which may be legacy users of a digital Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA) cellular telephone system, encode their transmissions with a common
first
code. Such first group of users are uniquely identifiable by providing a
unique code
phase offset for each user. The second group of users, who may be users of a
high
speed data service, encode their transmissions using the same code and one of
the
code phase offsets of that code. However, each of the users of the second
group
further encode their transmissions with an additional code, the additional
code being
unique for each of the users of the second group. This permits the
transmissions of
the second group of users to be orthogonal to each other while still
maintaining the
appearance of collectively being a single user of the first group.
The code assigned to the first group of users may be a common chipping rate,
pseudorandom code. The code assigned to the second group of terminals may
typically be a set of unique orthogonal codes. The individual members of the
first
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group of terminals may be distinguished by scrambling codes that have unique
phase offsets
of a selected longer pseudorandom noise sequence.
In a preferred embodiment, certain steps are taken to ensure proper operation
of the
signaling among the second group of users or so-called "heartbeat."
Specifically, a common
code channel may be dedicated for use as a synchronization channel. This
permits the
maintenance of proper timing of the transmissions of the second group of
terminals if, for
example, the coding scheme is implemented in a reverse link direction.
In another embodiment, the user of the second group may be allocated specific
time
slots in which to transmit and therefore maintain the orthogonality through
the use of time
division multiple access. Again, the point is that the users of the second
group collectively
appear as a single user to the transmissions of the users in the first group.
According to a first broad aspect of the present disclosure, there is
disclosed a user
device comprising: an antenna; a transceiver configured to provide data to a
controller; and
the controller configured to transmit a reverse link signal, wherein the
reverse link signal is
produced by processing the data with a long pseudorandom noise (PN) sequence
and an
orthogonal sequence such that the user device has a different orthogonal
sequence from other
user devices of a first user group having the same long PN sequence wherein a
second user
group processes data using different PN sequences from each other and the
first group.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will
be
apparent from the following more particular description of preferred
embodiments of the
invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which like reference
characters
refer to the same parts throughout the different views. The drawings are not
necessarily to
scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the
invention.
Fig. I is a block diagram of a system which employs two different types of
channel
encoding according to the invention.
Fig. 2 is a more detailed diagram of a channel encoding process for a first
class of
users.
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Fig. 3 is a more detailed diagram of a channel encoding process for a second
class of
users.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
communication system 10 that makes use of a signal encoding scheme in which a
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first class of logical channels are assigned unique long codes with different
code
phase offsets, and a second class of logical channels are provided by using a
common code and common code phase offset, combined with an additional coding
process using a unique orthogonal code for each channel.
In the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment, the
communication system 10 is described such that the shared channel resource is
a
wireless or radio channel. However, it should be understood that the
techniques
described here can be applied to implement shared access to other types of
media
such as telephone connections, computer network connections, cable
connections,
and other physical media to which access is granted on a demand driven basis.
The system 10 supports wireless communication for a first group of users
110 as well as a second group of users 210. The first group of users 110 are
typically legacy users of cellular telephone equipment such as wireless
handsets
113-1, 113-2, and/or cellular mobile telephones 113-h installed in vehicles.
This
first group of users 110 principally use the network in a voice mode whereby
their
communications are encoded as continuous transmissions. In a preferred
embodiment, these users' transmissions are forwarded from the subscriber units
113
through forward link 40 radio channels and reverse link 50 radio channels.
Their
signals are managed at a central location that includes a base station antenna
118,
base transceiver station (BTS) 120, base station controller (BSC) 123. The
first
group of users 110 are therefore typically engaged in voice conversations
using the
mobile subscriber units 113, BTS 120, and BSC 123 to connect telephone
connections through the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) 124.
The forward link 40 in use by the first group of users maybe encoded
according to well known digital cellular standards such as this Code Division
Multiple Access (CDMA) standard defined in IS-95B specified by the
Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). This forward link 40 includes
at
least a paging channel 141 and traffic channel 142, as well as other logical
channels
144. These forward link 40 legacy channels 141, 142, 144 are defined in such a
system by using orthogonally coded channels. These first group of users 110
also
encode their transmissions over the reverse link 50 in accordance with the IS-
95B
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Fig. 3 is a more detailed liagraxm of a channel encoding process for a second
class of
users.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION C : , A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
5 Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
communication system 10 that rrakes use of a signal encoding scheme in which a
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standard. They therefore make use of several logical channels in a reverse
link 50
direction, including an access channel 151, traffic channel 152, and other
logical
channels 154. In this reverse link 50, the first group of users 110 typically
encode
the signals with a common long code using different code phase offsets. The
manner of encoding signals for the legacy users 110 on the reverse link 50 is
also
well known in the art.
The communication system 10 also includes a second group of users 210.
This second group of users 210 are typically users who require high speed
wireless
data services. Their system components include a number of remotely located
Personal Computer (PC) devices 212-1, 212-2,... 212-h, ... 212-1,
corresponding
remote Subscriber Access Units (SAUs) 214-1, 214-2,... 214-h, ... 214-1, and
associated antennas 216-1, 216-2,... 216-h, ... 216-1. Centrally located
equipment
includes a base station antenna 218, and a Base Station Processor (BSP) 220.
The
BSP 220 provides connections to an from an Internet gateway 222, which in turn
provides access to a data network such as the Internet 224, and network file
server
230 connected to the network 222.
The PCs 212 may transmit data to and receive data from network server 230
through bi-directional wireless connections implemented over the forward link
40
and reverse link 50 used by the legacy users 110. It should be understood that
in a
point to multi-point multiple access wireless communication system 10 as
shown, a
given base station processor 220 supports communication with a number of
different
active subscriber access units 214 in a manner which is similar to a cellular
telephone communication network.
In the present scenario, the radio frequencies allocated for use by the first
group 110 are the same as those allocated for use by the second group 210. The
present invention is specifically concerned with how to permit a different
encoding
structure to be used by the second group 210 while creating minimal
interference to
the first group 110.
The PCs 212 are typically laptop computers 212-1, handheld units 212-h,
Internet-enabled cellular telephones or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) type
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computing devices. The PCs 212 are each connected to a respective SAU 214
through a suitable wired connection such as an Ethernet-type connection.
An SAU 214 permits its associated PC 212 to be connected to the network
file server 230 through the BSP 220, gateway 222 and network 224. In the
reverse
link direction, that is, for data traffic traveling from the PC 212 towards
the server
230, the PC 212 provides an Internet Protocol (IP) level packet to the SAU
214. The
SAU 214 then encapsulates the wired framing (i.e., Ethernet framing) with
appropriate wireless connection framing and encoding. The appropriately
formatted
wireless data packet then travels over one of the radio channels that comprise
the
reverse link 50 through the antennas 216 and 218. At the central base station
location, the BSP 220 then extracts the radio link framing, reformatting the
packet in
IP form and forwards it through the Internet gateway 222. The packet is then
routed
through any number and/or any type of TCP/IP networks, such as the Internet
224, to
its ultimate destination, such as the network file server 230.
Data may also be transmitted from the network file server 230 to the PCs 212
in a forward link 40 direction. In this instance, an Internet Protocol (lP)
packet
originating at the file server 230 travels through the Internet 224 through
the Internet
gateway 222 arriving at the BSP 220. Appropriate wireless protocol framing and
encoding is then added to the IP packet. The packet then travels through the
antenna
218 and 216 to the intended receiver SAU 214. The receiving SAU 214 decodes
the
wireless packet formatting, and forwards the packet to the intended PC 212
which
performs the IP layer processing.
A given PC 212 and the file server 230 can therefore be viewed as the end
points of a duplex connection at the IP level. Once a connection is
established, a
user at the PC 212 may therefore transmit data to and receive data from the
file
server 230.
From the perspective of the second group of users 210, the reverse link 50
actually consists of a number of different types of logical and/or physical
radio
channels including an access channel 251, multiple traffic channels 252-1, ...
252-t,
and a maintenance channel 53. The reverse link access channel 251 is used by
the
SAUs 240 to send messages to the BSP 220 to request that traffic channels be
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granted to them. The assigned traffic channels 252 then carry payload data
from the
SAU 214 to the BSP 220. It should be understood that a given IP layer
connection
may actually have more than one traffic channel 252 assigned to it. In
addition, a
maintenance channel 253 may carry information such as synchronization and
power
control messages to further support transmission of information over the
reverse link
50.
Similarly, the second group of users have a forward link 40 that includes a
paging channel 241, multiple traffic channels 242-1 ... 242-t, and maintenance
channel 243. The paging channel 241 is used by the BSP 220 to not only inform
the
SAU 214 that forward link traffic channels 252 have been allocated to it, but
also to
inform the SAU 214 of allocated traffic channels 252 in the reverse link
direction.
Traffic channels 242-1 ... 242-t on the forward link 40 are then used to carry
payload
data information from the BSP 220 to the SAUs 214. Additionally, maintenance
channels 243 carry synchronization and power control information on the
forward
link 40 from the base station processor 220 to the SAUs 214. It should be
understood that there are typically many more traffic channels 241 than paging
channels 241 or maintenance channels 243. In the preferred embodiment,
the logical forward link channels 241, 242, and 243 and 251, 252, and 253 are
defined by assigning each channel a pseudorandom noise (PN) channel code. The
system 10 is therefore a so-called Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system
in which multiple coded channels may use the same radio frequency (RF)
channel.
The logical or codes channels may also be further divided or assigned among
multiple active SAUs 214.
The sequence of signal processing operations is typically performed to
encode the respective reverse link 50 logical channels 51, 52, and 53. In the
reverse
link direction, the transmitter is one of the SAUs 214 and the receiver is the
Base
Station Processor (BSP) 220. The preferred embodiment of the invention is
implemented in an environment where legacy users of a CDMA digital cellular
telephone system such as one operating in accordance with the IS-95B standard
are
also present on the reverse link 50. In an IS-95B system, reverse link CDMA
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channel signals are identified by assigning non-orthogonal pseudorandom noise
(PN)
codes.
Turning attention now to Fig. 2, the channel encoding process for the first
group of legacy users 110 will be described in greater detail. This first
class of users
includes, for example, digital CDMA cellular telephone system users that
encode
signals according to the IS-95B standard as mentioned above. The individual
channels are therefore identified by modulating the input digitized voice
signal by a
pseudorandom noise (PN) code sequence for each channel. Specifically, the
channel
encoding process takes an input digital signal 302 that represents the
information to
be transmitted. A quadrature modulator 304 provides an in-phase (i) and
quadrature
(q) signal path to a pair of multipliers 306-i and 306-q. A short pseudorandom
noise (PN) code generator 305 provides a short (in this case a 2 15 -1 or
32767 bit)
length code used for spectrum spreading purposes. The short code typically
therefore is the same code for each of the logical channels for the first
group 110.
A second code modulation step is applied to the (i) and (q) signal paths by
multiplying the two signal paths with an additional long PN code. This is
accomplished by the long code generator 307 and the long code multipliers 308-
i
and 308-q. The long code serves to uniquely identify each user on the reverse
link
50. The long code may be a very long code, which, for example, only repeats
every
2 12 -1 bits. The long code is applied at the short code chipping rate, e.g.,
one bit of
the long code is applied to each bit output by the short code modulation
process, so
that further spectrum spreading does not occur.
Individual users are identified by applying different phase offsets of the PN
long code to each user.
It should be understood that other synchronization steps need not be taken for
the first group of users 110. Specifically, these transmissions on the reverse
link 50
are designed to be asynchronous and therefore are not necessarily perfectly
orthogonal.
Fig. 3 is a more detailed view of the channel encoding process for the second
group of users 210. This second group 210, for example, includes wireless data
users that encode signals according to a format optimized for data
transmission.
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The individual channels are identified by modulating the input data by a
pseudorandom noise (PN) code sequence that is the same code sequence used for
the
first group of users 110. However, as will be understood shortly, the channels
in the
second group 210 are uniquely identified by specific orthogonal codes such as
Walsh codes. Specifically, the channel encoding process for this second group
of
users 210 takes an input digital signal 402 and applies a number of codes as
generated by a short code generator 405, Walsh code generator 413, and long
code
generator 407.
As a first step, a quadrature modulator 404 provides an in-phase (i) and
quadrature (q) signal path to a first pair of multipliers 406-i and 406-q. The
short
pseudorandom noise (PN) code generator 405 provides a short, in this case, a
215
length code used for spectrum spreading purposes. This short code therefore is
the
same as the short PN code used for each of the channels in the first group
110.
A second step in the process is to apply an orthogonal code such as generated
by the Walsh code generator 413. This is accomplished by the multipliers 412-i
and
412-q impressing the orthogonal code on each of the in-phase and quadrature
signal
paths. The orthogonal code assigned to each logical channel is different, and
uniquely identifies such channels.
In a final step of the process, a second pseudorandom noise (PN) long code is
applied to the (i) and (q) signal paths. The long code generator 407 thus
forwards
the long code to a respective one of the in-phase 408-i and quadrature 408-q
multipliers. This long code does not uniquely identify each user in the second
group
210. Specifically, this code may be one of the very same long codes that are
used in
the first group that uniquely identify their first group of users 110. Thus,
for
example, it is applied in the same manner as a short code chipping rate code
so that
one bit of the long code is applied to each bit output by the short code
modulation
process. In this manner, all of the users in the second group 210 appears as a
single
legacy user of the first group 110. However, the users of the second group 210
may
be uniquely identified given that they have been assigned unique orthogonal
Walsh
codes.
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As the implementation in the preferred embodiment is on a reverse link 50,
additional
information must be provided in order to maintain orthogonality among the
various users in
the second group 210. Specifically, a maintenance channel 243 is therefore
included in the
forward link 40. This maintenance or "heartbeat" channel provides
synchronization
information and/or other timing signals so that the remote units 214 may
synchronize their
transmissions appropriately- The maintenance channel may be time slotted. For
more details
of the formatting of this forward link maintenance channel 243, reference can
be had to co-
assigned U. S. Patent No_ 7,079.523 filed February 1,2001 entitled
"MAINTENANCE
LINK USING ACTIVE/STANDBY REQUEST CHANNELS," which is hereby
incorporated by reference in its entirety.
It should be understood that certain infrastructure may therefore be shared by
both
the second group of users 210 and first group of users 110. For example, the
antennas 218
and 118 although shown as separate base station antennas in Fig. 1 may indeed
be a shared
antenna. Likewise, the location for the antennas may therefore be the same.
This permits the
second group of users 210 to share equipment and physical build-out locations
already in
place and in use by the legacy users 110. This greatly simplifies the
deployment of wireless
infrastructure for this new group of users 210, for example, new locations and
new antenna
sites need not be built out.
